2018 School Spending Survey Report
>Are historicals history?
>In my capacity as chair of the Scott O'Dell Award, I received a letter from a prominent author of historical fiction, bemoaning what she sees as a current lack of interest in the genre among publishers.
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Venus
>I have often found as a bookseller that the kids will grab anything if it looks interesting. I mean, the American Girl series is as popular as ever. Parents on the other hand seem to be a bit more picky. A strange trend I have noticed recently, parents will pick up books for their kids if it is set in the time period they grew up in. Which means novels about the seventies and eighties are beginning to draw some attention. And when parents are buying for their kid without the child present, they tend toward historical or contemporary rather than anything fantasy or sci-fi based.Posted : Mar 31, 2011 12:54
Loretta Ellsworth
>I tend to agree more with the prominent author of historical fiction that you mentioned. Historical fantasy may be doing well, but straight historical fiction isn't. Publishers are looking for more commercial books and quite often historical fiction is not seen as commerical.I think in the coming years we will see a downward trend in the numbers in this genre even though it continues to win the big awards.
Posted : Mar 30, 2011 10:36
Cindy Vallar
>As a reviewer for Historical Novels Review (from The Historical Novel Society), I see no evidence that publishers aren't seeking and publishing historical fiction. Over the years we've consistently received more galleys than we can review in an issue, which covers not only adult, but also children's and young adult historical fiction. In my capacity as an editor for HNS's Solander Magazine, I'll be spotlighting a soon-to-be published YA historical novel by Susanne Dunlap entitled In the Shadow of the Lamp.Posted : Mar 30, 2011 05:18
D.M. McGowan
>There seems to be a consenses with commenters although it is being said in different ways.My three novels can be called historical fiction and from feed back I've recieved from readers they are popular with those from early teens to as ancient as I. However, if one tells the teens and twenties the story is historical fiction they aren't too excited until after they've dipped into the story.
As for teachers and librarians the stories give students a look at Canadians (and Canada) of the late 1800s along with some entertainment to keep them reading.
I'm selling fine ... but, as with anything else, how do you market it?
Dave
www.dmmcgowan.blogspot.com
Posted : Mar 29, 2011 11:55
Shoshana
>I recently made a reference list for the Brookline Booksmith staff of books in the kids' section with nonwhite characters, and I found that quite a few of the intermediate and YA titles were historical fiction. My sense is that much of the historical fiction published recently has a different purpose than that published a few decades ago--to tell the parts of the story that were left out the first/second/third time around.Posted : Mar 29, 2011 01:26